Mine's longer than ....

[keweenaw]

The problem with going to the CLA show is you see things you just gotta have.  Show before last I bought Tom Grimslade's fowler book and fell in love with one of the British style fowlers BS6 in it.  Then he had the gun there in his display this year!  The barrel to build it with arrived yesterday from Ed Rayl.  Double tapered octagon to swamped round, 1 1/4" breech, 12 ga. 52" long.  Not all that heavy, 4 lb. 11 oz. Original gun has a Spanish style barrel so there will be lots of filing on it before it's ready to use. Only about the back 3 in. will stay full octagon.  There is about a 1/4" wide sighting flat down the length of the barrel to be relieved and some arabesque engraving  to go on it.  I got an appropriate, very long fowler guard from Reeves and it looks like a 1st model Brown Bess butt plate can be modified appropriately although I'll probably beat one out of some 0.080" sheet brass.  Have some stock blanks that are long enough but the one I have that has a really bright curl like the original is a bit short, but I may use it with a splice at the foremost pipe.  Now I'm wishing I hadn't just taken an order for a Beck rifle .....

Tom

[rich pierce]

I have an Ed Rayl 12 ga barrel that's 54" for my Hudson Valley fowler project.  So there.

I could say more but it wouldn't be prudent.

[woodsrunner]

That's not fair!! Mine, New England #20 in Tom's book and built by David Dodds, has a 51 inch barrel made by Ed! I really think that you would be happier with the way a 50 inch barrel will handle 

[Don Getz]

Tom...wow, that sound like a great project.   With the steel Ed uses, that should be a "fun" project, hope you have good
chisels..........Don

[Mike Brooks]

I have a 72" 11 bore barrel  with an 1 3/8" breech already in a piece of curly maple...all I have to do is build it.

[Longknife]

Mike , Will you be making a matching loading bench ? (to stand on while loading?). I have a short  52 inch x 11 ga. and a walnut blank, been hanging on my "project wall" for too long! The barrel is from one of those late belgian trade guns, was originally a flinter. You guys are giving me inspiration, I am thinking a club butt fowler-something different, something unique-----...Ed

[northup87]

Im just finishing up my first project, and will post pictures of it soon but it is an iron mounted, 44 caliber, 60 inch tennesse log rifle ....  the barrel weight is only 7.2 pounds, but is quite ackwardly heavy when 2/3 of the rifle is past your forearm..

[Michael]

Sounds as though I'm in good company! Got a rifle with one of Ed's barrels; .48 caliber and 54 inches long. The rifle is very manageable as the breech is only about 7/8 inches wide and it has a slight taper and flair at the muzzle.


Michael

[Acer Saccharum]

I have a 36" barrel on order. Wrong thread? Well, it's long for me! 

[bob in the woods]

I sure can appreciate the look, but, honestly, the 46 inch barrels I have are about as long as I can comfortably manage.  I'm  6 ft 3+ inches, but loading gets a little bothersome once a barrel gets longer than that, for me.

[keweenaw]

I think handling all depends on the balance and intended use of the gun.  The long fowlers - Hudson Valley and British style were primarily designed for shooting waterfowl from blinds.   Most shooting would have been of birds on the water, not flying.  The guns generally had ample proportions with considerable thickness in the butts and wrists to balance them.  If you look at photos of some of these guns that had the barrels shortened they look out of proportion.   Most of the HVF's were over 10 lbs and some considerably above that. The British styles, like I'm building were more in the 9-10 lb. range but with my barrel I'm aiming at 8 1/4 lb.  with 8 1/2 max if I need that to get the correct balance.  Definitely not guns for grouse hunting and a pain to load in a boat blind.  I'm planning on using mine for turkey hunting from a blind.  One shot at a standing or walking bird.  But the real reason to build one of these is because it looks so cool!!!

Tom

[J. Talbert]

And here I fell for that line, "Size doesn't really matter...."